$10,000 for a Road, and Not a Shovel of Dirt Turned

We have before noticed the zeal of our Mr. McMorran, who was instrumental in securing an appropriation of $10,000 for the purpose of building a road from Newport to some point on the Columbia River. And to the best of our information, that appropriation seems to have been exhausted in clerical work and the making of surveys that no doubt, from an engineering standpoint, are interesting and ornamental. Yet the fact remains that no actual work has been done on the lines of clearing or grading this road or these roads, by the state or any other recognized authority.

In view of these facts The Miner suggests that before any more appropriations are made, for roads or similar purposes, an act of the legislature should make it impossible that more than 10 per cent of any future appropriation should be spent in surveys and clerical work on account of the object for which the appropriation is made, and The Miner hereby gives notice to all aspiring candidates for the legislature that the people of Stevens County need roads, and while we recognize that good surveys are a means to that end, yet we believe we are voicing the sentiments of the people when we say that these surveys should not be made the end sought. For it is evident that, be the surveys ever so accurate and the clerical work ever so well written, no Stevens County farmer, miner or lumberman will be able to get his produce to market any sooner on that account.